REARING THE TUSSER SILKWORM. 115 
devour and then take to the leaves. This they continue for 
forty-five days, and at each operation the worms get not only 
larger but change colour, till bright spots of silver and gold 
glitter in the sun. The morning of the forty-sixth day the 
creature spins its cocoon, which takes it two and a half to 
three days. The cocoons containing females are kept for seed, 
the male ones are put in hot water to destroy the vitality of 
the chrysalis, and then kept for sale. They remain in their 
cocoons for fifteen days, when the whole process above detailed 
must be done over again; but when they spin a second and last 
time for the season, the cocoons are allowed to remain on the 
trees three to four days to get seasoned, as the harder they are 
the better, when they are collected and sold to merchants. From 
the day the moths come out of the cocoons for the first time, to 
the time they are collected off the trees for sale at the end of the 
second and last crop for that year, there is a lapse of 134 days. 
The revenue paid to the ‘‘zemindar”’ for the use of the trees varies 
from Rs. 3 to Rs.4 per keeper, who can have two or three boys 
to help him. 
The cocoons reared on the Terminalia tomentosa (assun) are 
the largest. Those from the Shorea robusta (sal) are smaller 
but harder, and said to contain more silk. ‘Those found on the 
Zizyphus jujuba are still smaller and harder, and said to contain 
as much silk as any, but this I cannot vouch for, as I had no 
opportunity to satisfy myself on the subject. 
Before ending I must state that it is a known fact that the 
silkworms have enemies ready to eat or destroy them from the 
time the moth comes out from the cocoon, and even when in it 
in its wild state. While the moth is still hanging to the cocoon 
from which it has just issued, the night birds, bats, flying foxes 
and rats attack them, as well as ants. When in the eggs ants 
make short work of them, and in fact at all times. When they 
turn into worms they are attacked day and night by birds of all 
kinds, carried away by rats, snakes, Spanish flies, and wasps and 
other insects sting them to death. There is a kind of insect 
which has a long proboscis which it fixes in the worm and 
literally sucks up all the inside. On one occasion, having nothing 
wherewith to catch it, I tried to kill it by pressing it between two 
leaves; I was stung in the top of the middle finger, and before I 
had time to drop it, I felt the pain right up to my shoulder. 
